Murder at So Solid party

Two people were killed and another seriously injured in a spate of gangland shootings over the Easter weekend.

A 27-year-old man died after a gunfight between rival groups at a nightclub event associated with notorious rap group So Solid Crew.

Shots were fired early yesterday inside the Turnmills club in Clerkenwell where organisers were promoting the debut single of Lisa Maffia, one of the group's singers.

One man was injured in the shoulder but the shooting continued and culminated in the murder of the 27-year-old man after a car chase.

Up to 1,000 people were in the club at the time. Maffia was to have topped the bill but her appearance had been cancelled at the last minute.

Earlier, on Good Friday, Shawn Perch, 30, was killed when two men on a motorbike shot him once in the head and once in the chest on Chamberlayne Road in Harlesden.

Detectives believe the killing was a gangland assassination and may be connected with other shootings in the area.

Three more shootings also took place over the weekend, including one in which a 25-year-old man was wounded outside the Ion bar in Ladbroke Grove and another in which a vicarage in St Mary's Road, Harlesden, was sprayed with gunfire.

Witnesses to the Turnmills shooting, at 2.30am yesterday, described how tables and chairs were sent flying as clubbers dived for cover.

Pritin Patel, 25, an IT technician from Harrow, said: "I was with a group of friends, dancing away and having a good time when suddenly I saw a whole bunch of guys come running through the club.

"There were about eight of them, they were mostly men and I thought there had been a fight. They looked like they were trying to leave the club in a hurry and they fled through a nearby fire exit. I could see broken chairs and broken tables afterwards.

"I didn't hear the shots because I was in a different room from where it happened. But the bouncers told us all we should leave as soon as possible and when we got outside the road was full of police in cars and vans."

The gunfight continued outside the club as a number of men who had climbed into an Audi TT car were pursued by men in a BMW. Shots were fired between the two vehicles and a man in the Audi was hit in the head. He died of his wounds.

The bullet-ridden Audi, which had collided with a parked Astra, was found in Farringdon Road, a short distance away. The BMW is believed to have sped off towards the City.

One man in his mid-twenties was arrested at the scene of the collision and is being questioned by police. The man who received a shoulder injury is said to be in a stable condition in hospital.

So Solid Crew, a 30-strong group of rappersa n d D J s with a l a r g e fol lowing in south London, soared to fame in 2001 and reached number one with their first single 21 Seconds.

But their career has been dogged by controversy.

Two men were shot at one of the group's shows at London's Astoria in 2001, although none of the group was involved, while band member Ashley Walters, 19, who uses the name Asher D, was sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders' institution last March for gun possession.

Other members, Shane Neil and Jason Phillips, both 24, are due to appear in court next month on gun-related charges.

Culture Minister Kim Howells accused rap and garage groups of glamorising guns after two teenage girls were shot dead in Birmingham in January and singled out So Solid Crew for particular blame.

The shootings occurred in the middle of a national firearms amnesty in which senior Yard officers have admitted they are struggling to persuade people in high gun crime boroughs to hand over their weapons.

Nevertheless, around 1,000 firearms, including at least two machineguns, have been recovered in London.